A Simple Game
by RenaRoo
Summary: At the end of the day, the paladins are kids facing life and death in a daily struggle. It's a good thing then that they find just the right way to feel their ages again. [COMPLETE]
1. In Need of Distraction

This is inspired by a series of prompts I've gotten on tumblr recently so I'm hoping everyone enjoys my romp in Voltron.

The first chapter is from an anonymous prompter: Shiro being a dad and taking care of his team

Voltron: Legendary Defender and related characters © Dreamworks  
story © RenaRoo

 **A Simple Game**  
Chapter One: In Need of Distraction

There wasn't much to the story. Shiro could tell that even before he got into the thick of it.

After all, the argument involved _Lance_ and it involved _Keith_ and pretty much any additional information was mind numbingly incoherent in the midst of Hunk having to hold the two apart.

While he didn't usually appreciate jumping into a situation with only half the available information, Shiro decidedly made an exception for this as his usual mole, Pidge, was slunk off in the corner curled around a new device of curious origin.

Instead, he crossed his arms and stood before his teammates with as much leaning on his stature over them as he could. At the very least, his looming shadow drew their attention from each other back to him.

"Okay, I know ahead of time that I'm asking too much of you – and that's _painful_ on its own to admit considering I _like_ to think we've grown up quite a bit in our time working together – but could we maybe go through a practice without devolving into petty squabbling?" Shiro asked sternly.

Lance dangled from Hunk's clutches and crossed his arms as well. "I would like to point out that there's _nothing_ petty about my squabbling. It's very reasonable squabbling."

"No squabbling is _reasonable_ by definition," Shiro countered.

"You know what else isn't reasonable?" Keith snapped, eyes still locked onto Lance. "The fact that _every_ time it's Lance covering my back I _mysteriously_ get shot by one of the drones."

"Hey, we're _practicing,"_ Lance huffed. "Do you think the Galra are going to let me follow you so close our boots are touching in real battle? I'm teaching you to look out for yourself more! I'm a _great_ teammate!"

"Look out for myself!? With the eyes on the back of my helmet!?" Keith growled.

Shiro looked worriedly toward the observation deck, hoping a pleading expression would be all he needed to get Allura to step in. But like she had done the last several sessions that had devolved into madness, she stood poised and aggravated.

Testing him.

He shook his head before turning his attention back to the still arguing duo and took notice of Hunk's distracted expression.

"You have somewhere to _be_ , Hunk?" Shiro asked with a raised brow. "You and Pidge both dropped your scores this round like you couldn't be bothered to keep your heads in the game." With a jerk of his head toward the pillar Pidge was poorly hid behind, Shiro continued, "At least we know why she was on the outs now. What about _you?"_

"Can I be honest?" Hunk asked, grip growing lax on Keith and Lance though neither seemed to notice in the heat of their verbal duel. "Pidge mentioned something about video games and it got me thinking about all the game releases I'm missing back home. And then I thought, oh gosh, who did my video game consoles go to? Like do they send all that stuff back home when you go missing? Are our dorms crime scenes now–"

Immediately regretting his decision to open dialogue, Shiro raised up his hands and formed an x.

"Okay, everyone, _enough!"_ he called out, loud enough that even Pidge looked up from her machines.

Everyone stared readily at him and the training room grew deathly quiet.

"Seeing as how everyone seems time to _reflect_ on why we're training. _Again._ I think we're going to officially call this practice into a timeout," Shiro ordered, putting his hands on his hips.

The other paladins glanced to each other then back to their leader.

"You mean… call off practice?" Pidge asked, brows furrowing.

"I mean, everyone is to get into a corner – _opposite corners_ of the training room – and sit in quiet until I think we're ready to run this drill again," Shiro ordered walking over to Pidge and ignoring the baffled expressions of the other four. He then grabbed the device easily from Pidge's hands.

She floundered uselessly for it, going off balance and smacking onto the floor as a result. "Hey!" she cried out in aggravation.

" _Without_ distractions," Shiro clarified, tucking the device under his arm.

He glanced toward the observation deck in time to see the stairs forming off its side as the princess came down to the training room floor. Shiro hesitated his look around the room, watching her instead and wondering what her input was about to be before shaking himself loose of his thoughts.

The other paladins were rubbing off on him.

"What? You're being serious? I'm in timeout?" Hunk called out, dropping Lance and Keith to the floor with a thud. "I've never voluntarily been in trouble! Not for, like, four years now! At least!"

"You can't put us in timeout!" Keith spat out, raising off the floor, one eye squinting.

"Yeah, we're saving the universe! That _practically_ makes us adults!" Lance argued.

Shiro stared down at them angrily. "Corners, paladins. _Now."_

To his bemusement, the four teenagers picked themselves off the floor and actually slumped off to their corners, feet dragging and muttering growing to a steady white noise.

Once they were all in place, Shiro stood in the middle of the arena and wondered just how long _he_ was going to be able to take the tense quiet of the paladin timeout before caving. He knew he had the iron will to resist early pardon, but the thought still lingered.

By the time Allura stepped up beside him, he was beginning to feel the burn of teenage angst aimed at him.

"You have a unique method of wrangling your fellow paladins," she noted, a smirk on her lips. "But it works for this team, so I suppose as unorthodox as it all is, this is what we need."

"To be honest I'm looking at this the most realistic way possible," Shiro sighed. "They're saving countless worlds, they're galaxies away from home, and at the end of it all… they're kids, Allura. They've barely experienced life and we're asking a lot of them, and they've done nothing but give. Some… childish slip ups from time to time, well, to be honest it might just be the best we can hope for."

He glanced down to the device in hand and then frowned dully.

"Still, they act like children, they get treated like children," he looked around the room to make sure no paladin had escaped their corner.

"Well then," Allura said, folding her arms across her chest. "I suppose I need to ask then, what childish activity should our paladins be allowed to have to _better_ express these tendencies then?"

Shiro thought for a moment, glancing between the four colorful paladins and then to Pidge's newest project. "Princess, do you know anything about video games?"


	2. Child's Play

From powerfulpomegranate on tumblr: Pidge finds an old Altaiean(?) gaming console and fixes it. the entire gang gets together and play what is basically mario kart (Allura destroys everyone)

Thank you so much to the support for this fic from LoserLife592, Rogu3p1rate23, staininspace, freshzombiewriter, secretlystephaniebrown, elfgiftspeaks, space-capri-suns, frostystuffs, San child of the wolves, Hana13, and two lovely guests on ffnet, AO3, and tumblr!

As for the guest and Hana13 asking for me to use character tags on , since the site only allows 4 character tags and this is an ensemble cast featuring everyone with no main character, I don't really feel right tagging any characters over the others. I hope that makes sense!

Voltron: Legendary Defender and related characters © Dreamworks  
story © RenaRoo

 **A Simple Game**  
Chapter Two: Child's Play

When their disastrous excuse of a training simulation had at last been called to an end, Pidge had been all but too ready to collapse on the nearest bench or bed she could find. Her attitude had been rather soured by Shiro taking the small orb of Altean technology from her during their less than stellar performance.

Exhausted, she had found a good place to sleep, and hadn't expected at all for Shiro to follow her.

"Aw, come _on_ , Shiro. Can't we relax a bit?" she begged from the bench, curling up over her knees.

"Honestly, the drill sergeant in me wants to say no," he said, standing over her. He then produced the small white orb, tossing it a little too carelessly for Pidge's tastes as they waited. "But I've got another assignment for you."

"Hey!" Pidge called out, jumping to her feet and easily grabbing the device from Shiro's hands. "Be careful with that! I'm halfway through my repairs." She then eyed it suspiciously. "You know, if you _didn't_ knock loose all my hard work."

Shiro didn't seem particularly apologetic as he stood by, putting his hands on his hips and watching as Pidge opened a side panel on the orb.

"From what Hunk was saying earlier, I don't need to tell you too much about what that device's original functions were," he observed. "But just in case, I asked Allura and it _does_ seem like this orb was used as an Altean entertainment system. A game console if you will. For younger Altean children."

Catching his words, Pidge puffed out her bottom lip and glared Shiro's way. "Are you trying to make fun of me for being a gamer geek?" she asked suspiciously.

"Not in the least," Shiro said, holding up his hands. "On the contrary, I was going to give you my own personal assignment." He waited for Pidge to raise a brow his way before continuing. "I would like for you to make that thing work, get some games on it that the rest of the paladins can play."

More than a bit surprised, Pidge blinked before ultimate squinting at her team leader.

"Is this going to turn into some sort of teamwork drill?" she asked skeptically.

"It's more like a _remembering we're human_ drill, honestly," Shiro replied with a shrug. His eyes looked at her sharply. "Think you can do it?"

Pidge smirked, pulled a tool from her belt, and spun it expertly between her fingers. "Is that a challenge, Shiro?"

"If that helps you fix the toy faster," he said, walking toward the exit, "take it any way you like, Pidge."

The engineer blinked, watching him leave, before letting out a small snort and looking to the orb. " _Toy,"_ she repeated mockingly as she got to work.

As she worked, Pidge could not help but notice how advanced Altean tech was, and just how much more advanced it grew as she peeled the layers of programming back one by one.

Her exhaustion from training seemed to get devoured by her hunger for fixing the device, solving the puzzle that was just how the gaming platform worked. Fairly soon her entire attention span was devolved into the one track mission of solving the tech, only peripherally observing the fact that her fellow paladins wandered in and out of the area with various comments and questions of their own.

By the time she was fully aware of her surroundings, Pidge was sitting on the floor across from Princess Allura, who seemed a mixture of bemused and curious.

"Princess?" Pidge asked, blinking her red and strained eyes a few times. She tightened the last bolts on the device. "How long have you been sitting there?"

With a gentle laugh, Allura pulled her knees up to her chest. "Long enough to appreciate a perfectionist at hand."

"Oh," Pidge remarked awkwardly. She regarded the princess for a moment more before looking down to the orb. "Sorry about that! It's just that everything in the castle I've gotten to work with for the most part is really advanced and amazing, but it's always something _incredibly_ important. Like it's hard to find something on this ship that doesn't somehow serve a huge functioning purpose." She ran her fingers over the smooth surface. "And I guess finding this thing for games and entertainment seemed… I don't know. It seemed like the most _human_ purpose anything has served so far."

Thinking over her words, Pidge nearly smacked herself in the head before looking skittishly back to Allura. "Not human, ha. I meant most _Altean_ thing I've found so far."

To Pidge's great relief, Allura let out a soft laugh and reached forward to stroke the orb as well. "I understand what you mean, Pidge, and I agree," Allura replied softly. "At the end of the day, what is left of Altea and my people seems to be this castle and all the things within it that were meant to assist in galactic strife and conduct." There was a broken softness to her smile as she looked at the orb. "No wonder it was so surprising to you all that our true purpose was once to serve as diplomats and peacekeepers. Not warriors. There's so little left to tell otherwise. To share how we aged, how we played."

Listening to the princess, Pidge felt her heart twist in her chest. Something she felt all the more when Allura continued to hold her fingers finely against the toy's surface.

"This was your toy," Pidge marveled, surprised at herself for not stringing the facts together sooner. "You used to play with this!"

"Of course," Allura said, growing a wicked smile. "I broke it _ages_ ago and haven't had the time to think of it since. But now that you, my genius green paladin, have fixed it, I believe there is no choice but for us to test it out."

Pidge was still caught off guard when she realized Allura's outreached hands held meaning. She blushed before quickly scrambling to drop the orb into Allura's knowledgeable grasp.

Once Allura held the device, she shifted so that she could raise up to her knees. Pidge followed suit and watched as the Altean royalty held the device out between the the two of them.

Her fingers found purchase on the five grooves to each side which she then pressed, lighting up the machine. Allura released it, allowing it to float between them.

Pidge watched in amazement as the small orb then projected two screens out, one in front of herself and one in front of Allura.

A sharp glint appeared in the princess' eye as she reached forward and pressed a button on the screen. "Would you like to join me for a game, Pidge?" she asked.

"Would I!?" Pidge cried out, mirroring the action.

"Whoa! You guys got it to work?" Hunk's voice carried after the distant door slid open. He barreled over, plopping down on the right corner from Pidge. "Oh, man. I'm so ready for this!"

As the orb projected a third screen in front of his face, Hunk nearly rocked back and lost balance from surprise, only stopped as Pidge and Allura reached out and grabbed his hands.

"Careful, paladins," Allura laughed. "This hasn't even been the most immersive part of the experience yet!"

"Press that button in the corner, Hunk!" Pidge informed her friend excitedly. "It'll let you join our game!"

"Oh, okay! That doesn't sound too hard!" Hunk said, doing just that.

Allura's smile grew sharper and she seemed ready to press the final button to lock the game when the doors opened again, that time letting Shiro in.

The black paladin smiled broadly as he approached. "Good work, Pidge!" he complimented. "Though, I didn't expect you to take the challenge so seriously that you didn't take any breaks this whole night."

Feeling her chest fill with pride, Pidge smirked at him. "Progress – and my _pride –_ waits on no one, Shiro," she informed him. She then waved to the available spot between herself and Allura. "Room for one more."

He hesitated in his stride, a weak smirk on his face. "I don't know… I was never much of a gamer. I didn't even care for the simulations in the academy, truth be told…"

"Oh, come _on,_ Shiro," Hunk said, waving him over.

"Yes, Shiro! Please join us," Allura said, patting the mat beside her.

Shiro joined Pidge in looking suspiciously at the princess, but slowly he made his way to her side all the same. "Alright, then. But no one make fun of my score."

"No promises," Allura said in feigned sweetness that managed to draw both Hunk and Pidge's attention.

The moment Shiro readied his own screen, Allura was starting the game to all of their surprise.

"Whoa! There's not even a tutorial!" Pidge cried out, watching the multitude of arrows and options appear on the screen before her while the high resolution image began hurdling through a racing track with the cosmos as its background.

"Of course there isn't!" Allura laughed. "It's a simple child's game after all."

"Whoa!" Hunk cried out as his ship flew off screen, hit by some sort of flashing fruit. He glared at Allura's direction. "Did you just knock me off the course!? Princess! You play dirty!"

"I do not!" she fired back. "I simply play the game!"

Pidge watched Allura in her peripheral while trying desperately to figure out her own controls. It wasn't just a simple matter of pressing buttons as they appeared or swiping left and right for Allura. She was bobbing, weaving, and swaying her whole body as she stirred her ship. A wild and excited expression simply grew on her face with each successful move.

While Pidge attempted to match the enthusiasm, Shiro seemed to huddle more into himself, squinting at the controls. His ship was moving at a snail's pace, in the back of the racing lineup, and with nothing but the most precise of movements.

"I don't think I get this," he said.

"And you call yourselves paladins!?" Allura laughed, a wild energy lighting up her eyes. "I could beat you all in stasis!" She grinned at them all as she crossed the finish line. "I practically just did! And I've not played Racer in _thousands_ of years!"

"Yeah, well, Allura, we've played it, like, _never,"_ Hunk laughed back.

"Yeah, go easy on us," Pidge laughed.

"Hmm," Allura hummed, tapping her chin. She then smirked to them all. "Maybe, maybe not. Either way, are you ready to play again?"

"Yes!" Pidge and Hunk yelled in unison.

Shiro squinted at his screen. "Wait, let me finish my lap up first."

They all looked to him before laughing so joyfully that even Shiro joined in.

"No, but seriously," Shiro said, pointing at his screen. "It's not going to let me go until I finish."


	3. Cheater Cheater

Anonymous prompted: okay for voltron... hunk and keith bonding? maybe inspired by that moment where hunk was like "what if it was me who was captured?" and the 2 of them talking it out

Thanks to frostystuffs, ephemeraltea, Rogu3p1rate26, requirings, and secretlystephaniebrown for the support on ffnet, AO3, and tumblr!

Voltron: Legendary Defender and related characters © Dreamworks  
story © RenaRoo

 **A Simple Game  
** Chapter Three: Cheater Cheater

The training involved with being a paladin had been a little more than Hunk had originally bargained for.

Though, in truth, he knew none of them had really _bargained_ anything for the twists of fate that had brought them not only together, but then and there. There was simply an astounding amount of pressure and curious expectation placed upon them without warning.

Fate was kind of unfortunate that way.

Still, there were things Hunk found himself appreciating, not the least of which was the availability of resources and luxury. He missed home, he missed the feeling of pride and accomplishment he got from working his way into the academy. But he didn't miss the limitations that those things had.

Like a scheduled meal times and the inflexibility afforded to them with regards to it.

And the fact that he had been forced to leave at least half of his game collection at his parents' home when he entered the academy to begin with. Something that might have been solved if current Earth tech had been anywhere near as compact and full of possibility as the ancient Altean tech given to _children._

Having gotten a snack worthy of a late night gaming session, Hunk carried it back with him to the makeshift gaming room Allura had set aside for them where the gaming orb was to be left. Much to both Pidge and Hunk's complaining that they couldn't steal it away in their rooms for just such late night gaming.

What he wasn't expecting was to open the door and see a game screen lit and vibrating to the sounds of the fighting game programming.

Nor did he expect to see Keith on his knees at one of the mats, swatting away at the screen with frightening speed.

"Wha– _Keith?"_ Hunk called out in his confusion. "Since when were you interested in GameOrb?"

Keith's brows knotted together as he looked at Hunk curiously. "GameOrb?"

"Yeah," Hunk gave a half shrug. "Allura has a fancy Atlean name for it, but I can't really pronounce it. I don't think I've ever even pronounced it the same way twice, actually. So I've started calling it the GameOrb. Shiro and Lance started calling it that, too. Only ones who don't are Allura and Pidge. But they just like to be fancy, I think."

Halfway through the explanation, Keith's eyes began to glaze over. The same way they did when Hunk was elaborating on some excitement he found working on the engines of the various pods or scouting ships.

For as much as Keith seemed a natural ace pilot, maintenance and field care didn't quite pique his interests the way they did for Hunk or Pidge.

By the end of Hunk's diatribe, Keith was back to facing his screen of the fighting game and taking up another battle.

Hunk grew quiet, watching Keith fighting with a fairly impressive degree of skill. He seemed almost on the same level that Lance and Hunk were with the GameOrb at that point.

"Whoa," Hunk said as he leaned over Keith's shoulder. "You're pretty good at that. Hey! How're you that good without practicing? It took Lance forever to figure out the motion controls for this. And I don't think I've ever seen you playing with us once."

The pilot gave him a look before finishing his match in record time. "Guess I'm just that good," Keith decided.

"Hmm," Hunk said, raising a brown. "Maybe. Maybe. _Or_ you've been practicing a ton all by yourself when you think everyone else is resting so that you can try to show us up after you start to show up during daylight hours. Huh? _That_ couldn't be it, right?"

At the very mention of the plot, Keith froze up, costing himself the current match. His eye twitched. "My score."

"Dude," Hunk said, squinting at the red paladin. "You were totally going to hustle us!"

"No," Keith defended before glancing back to the screen. He seemed to contemplate for a moment before glancing back. "Okay maybe a little."

Hunk stared at him for a moment before letting out a laugh and clapping Keith on the back. It wasn't too hard, but it was apparently unexpected enough that Keith his head through the projected screen before him.

By the time Keith was settled back on his knees, Hunk had walked around the GameOrb and taken a seat across from Keith. The device responded by almost immediately projecting a second screen.

Keith leaned to the side, raising a brow as he got a better look at Hunk. "What are you doing?"

"You know, I don't think you and I ever saw each other much at the academy," Hunk informed him, clicking around the GameOrb screen with practiced familiarity. "I think our classes were way too different. You know. Before you dropped out and stuff. I mostly heard about you through Lance."

"Oh," Keith replied uncomfortably.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you know by now that the longer you're around Lance the more you take for a grain of salt," Hunk laughed. "It _is_ kind of a shame, though. It seems like all of us had all this opportunity before to get know each other before getting on this whacky adventure in space with robotic lions and evil empires and junk. And yet we didn't even really know each other's names until we were flying through wormholes."

"I guess you're right," Keith responded, still reserved. His brows knit together as he settled back in his spot and looked to his screen.

After a moment, though, Keith couldn't take anymore and he all but laid on his side to get a clear view of Hunk from around the GameOrb. "No really, though. What are you doing?"

"Setting up a match," Hunk said.

"Between us?" Keith asked. "Why?"

"So we can both play at the same time?" Hunk replied, raising a brow of his own. "You can do that with these. You'd know if you played with us more. Speaking of which, you want this match to be co-op or do you want it to be versus? I'm thinking versus."

With a stubborn pout on his lips, Keith crossed his arms. "Did you miss the part where I was playing alone?"

"Yeah, yeah, you're trying to get better than everyone else while no one's around so you can look like the effortless cool guy when you finally join in," Hunk said with a wave of his hand. "But you missed the part where Allura made the rule that GameOrby has to stay in here and be shared by all of us. Believe me, that's the only reason it's not in my room right now. So. If you wanna play the GameOrb right now, you have to share."

Keith hummed a bit before looking off. "I'm kind of the loner. It's not really my style to–"

As the sound of the game starting interrupted him, Keith nearly fell back from his knees. His eyes widened. "Hey! You started without me! That's not fair!"

"You were taking too long to answer," Hunk replied as he typed away at the screen.

Seeing that Hunk wasn't about to let up, Keith got back into position and immediately began fighting back with all that he was worth. He grew a confident smirk the further he went, which Hunk supposed was worth going easy on him the first round.

"Want some of this food I nabbed from the kitchen?" Hunk asked as their match carried on.

"I don't know, what's it called?" Keith asked, eyes never breaking from the screen.

"It has names?" Hunk asked.

They snickered at the exchange a bit. Low at first, barely gritting through their teeth, but the laughs became more genuine as Hunk opened up and let out a full bellow.

Their laughter was probably loud enough to reach all of the others, and if it wasn't the yelling and name calling as their match carried from two out of three to three out of five to _five out of seven_ certainly would have. But no one came and interrupted them.

They had the full night to finish off the junk food and their match.


	4. The Next Round

Prompt from secretlystephaniebrown!

I just want to thank all of you so much for supporting this fic! It's really meant a lot

Voltron: Legendary Defender and related characters © Dreamworks  
story © RenaRoo

 **A Simple Game  
** Chapter Four: The Next Round

Lance had one goal for the evening, and it involved avoiding another lecture from Shiro at all costs. It also happened to involve a combination of video games and having as little forward thought as humanly possible.

Which made it _doubly_ difficult to not groan out in disappointment as loudly as possible when the door to the game room opened and he saw Pidge being on the other side.

Things that involved Pidge _rarely_ involved no thought.

His fellow paladin blinked in equal surprise at his presence before looking back down to the device in her hands. By the time she looked back to Lance his body was in a full on slump.

"Oh, great," he muttered, dragging himself in.

"Oh, sorry, Lance. I was just on my way out," she promised, holding the device closer to her chest.

Perking up slightly, Lance slapped his hands together. "Oh! Great news then! I'll just help myself on in here," he said jovially, walking toward the GameOrb and its circle of mats toward the center of the room.

Having already begun the preparation for shutting off his brain for the evening, Lance _almost_ didn't register what Pidge had been holding on her way out of the room. But by the time his feet were by the GameOrb mats, it came steamrolling over his thoughts.

"Hey!" Lance called out, whipping around to face Pidge.

Almost through the door herself, Pidge froze. Stiffly, she finally turned to face him and offered a reluctant smile. "Something up?"

"That! In your hands!" he said, pointing in accusation. "Is that Rover? I thought Rover was destroyed back when the castle was attacked. That was like… Huh. I have no idea how many days have passed without there being a day and night. But it's been _forever,_ right?"

She seemed slightly off balanced at the accusations, holding tighter to the device. "So what if it _is_ Rover?"

"Well," Lance replied thoughtfully, "I'm thinking if it _is_ Rover that it's suspicious how you're sneaking around with it. What's the deal with _that?"_

Pidge stayed quiet, eyes dropping a bit toward Rover as her grip loosened. "Shiro and Allura aren't on board with getting Rover back online. Considering that Sendak was able to copy the signature and send in… Well, send in the bomb."

Lance's brows raced for his hairline at the reminder. Not that the miraculous Altean technology had left much physically from the explosion, but there was _definitely_ a phantom of something traveling up his back. That ghost of selflessness that was met with immediate refusal by the universe.

"Yeah, well, hard to argue with that logic from my end," Lance said, rubbing at his neck.

When he glanced back to his teammate, he couldn't make out her eyes as they hid behind her hair and glasses. But her grip on Rover didn't let up, tightening to the point of shaking.

Smirking, Lance put a hand to his chin. "But you don't have that old empty bot in your hands for nothing… Hm." He feigned a gasp and snapped his fingers together. "Why, _Pidge!_ You wouldn't happen to be thinking of breaking some rules over that thing are you?"

"Bending," she admitted, looking up. There was some surprise on her face, maybe from his tone, maybe from just not expecting to get to explain herself. It was hard to tell. "I'm not really _breaking_ any rules here. They brought up some valid – _very_ valid – concerns about having Galra technology hanging around the castle when we don't have a way to stop Galra from taking advantage of it."

"Valid points we're ignoring?" Lance asked, stepping away from the GameOrb.

"No, _not_ ignoring," Pidge said, rolling her eyes.

"For _me_ can we pretend that we're ignoring them, though?" Lance begged. "I love the idea of you being a troublemaker!"

"You _do_ remember that I was breaking the rules at the academy for _months_ before you and Hunk ever thought to have your first food raid," Pidge argued, but she stepped more into the game room again. " _And_ even being at the academy was breaking all sorts of rules."

"Oh, right," Lance said, blinking in amazement. He had never given their time in the academy any thought with his new perspective on things. "Whoa, Pidge! This almost makes you… _cool?"_

The green paladin gave a large roll of her eyes. "Wow, that's meaningful coming from you, Lance."

"I know," he smirked before leaning coolly agains the back of the couch. "So how many rules are we breaking with this thing tonight, troublemaker?"

Pidge grunted, holding out Rover's inactive form. "None!" she snapped at first. She then thought for a moment before dropping her shoulders. "Okay, none _except_ the part about not doing it. And the part about doing it behind Allura and Shiro's backs. Other than _that_ it's none."

"So…" Lance hummed. "All of it?"

"All of it," Pidge mumbled.

"Ha!" Lance laughed, grabbing the device from Pidge's hands in spite of her immediate protests. "I love it. Okay, so _what_ do we do?"

"You don't do anything," Pidge growled, jumping up in order to get the leverage she needed and landing with Rover in tow. "You came in here to play video games, right?"

Lance pouted. "Well, _yeah_ , but–"

"Well, _play_ them," Pidge ordered. "If you want to be around to see me get in trouble, I can fix Rover in here. It's what I was doing anyway."

Smirking, Lance held out his hand. "Deal, partner!"

She stared at his hand for a long moment before raising an eyebrow. "What am I getting out of this besides your gaming proving to be a distraction later on?"

Giving a slight shrug, Lance kept his hand out waiting. "Company?" he offered.

While she rolled her eyes, Pidge clasped onto his hand and took the firm shake. "Because company _really_ helps get a job done," she said before moving toward the couch.

"Eh," Lance huffed, waving off her comment as he moved to the GameOrb. "You wouldn't have been putting it together in here if you weren't planning on wanting _someone_ to run into during all this time, Pidge. You're a bit too smart for that."

As the GameOrb projected its screens and patiently awaited for Lance to scroll through each available option, Pidge grew quiet.

It was easy to ignore the silence in favor of thinking she was simply deep in thought over the task at hand, but Lance continued to get the distinct, prickly feeling at the back of his neck telling him that Pidge's attention was focused on the back of his head.

With a few quick, confirming glances, Lance hiked up his shoulders and finally selected the ship flying simulator for what might have been the hundredth time that week.

"What?" he pressed as Pidge didn't say anything.

"It's just…" Pidge trailed off, fingers tapping nervously on Rover. "You were hurt in that bomb's explosion."

"Tell me about it," Lance huffed, reaching forward to swipe at the screen. "I was feeling that for _days._ Heh. Good thing we've got this amazing space technology of Allura's, huh?"

"But you haven't asked me how I'm going to stop it from happening again," Pidge continued, almost paying Lance's commentary no mind. "How do you know I'm not making a huge mistake, opening us up to another Galra attack. One that could hurt you even worse?"

Lance hummed a bit, free hand tapping on his knee while the other swiped away at the GameOrb's controls.

"Well, I _was_ doing a pretty good job of _not_ thinking about it until right now," Lance said, tilting back until he could look at Pidge upside down. "I know thinking's your _thing,_ Pidge, but you really should try _not_ thinking every now and then, it makes things a whole lot simpler at the end of the day."

"I don't believe you _don't think_ at the end of the day, Lance," Pidge remarked. "Not for a second."

"You mean not for a _tick?"_ Lance chuckled to himself.

"Very funny," Pidge huffed from the couch, drawing her feet up from the floor. Rather than fix Rover, she continued to watch Lance play for a while longer.

When it became obvious that Pidge was not about to release the elephant from the room, Lance sighed dramatically and paused his game. "Okay," he said, spinning around from his spot on the mat to stare at Pidge directly. "Tell me what you're doing different with Rover this time around to keep everything safe and fun and wonderful."

Pidge's face lit up. "Well, I had so much success putting together Altean technology by reverse engineering, and I know how easy it is for me to hack the Galra tech that originally ran Rover, so I'm going to do the same. Only this time I'm going to use my reverse engineering to deconstruct the Galra tech that's been running Rover entirely and rebuild a new interface mostly relying on adopting Earth programming language and the Altean I've been able to learn. Two languages that will make it more unlikely for the Galra to be able to knowledgeably hack or recreate for themselves! And if they do, a quick glance over from myself, Allura, or Coran would be able to tell that it's not right."

"Uh huh," Lance said, going back to his game. "Did explaining all that to someone who can't comprehend it at all make you feel any better?"

For a moment, Pidge actually took the time to consider before answering. "Actually, yeah! It kind of totally did."

"And for the record, as the resident paladin who gets the most disciplinary action, I don't believe for a second that anyone would actually get upset with you over any of this," Lance informed the tiny paladin. "It doesn't even have a laser on it. So lame."

"Whatever, Lance," Pidge said, finally reaching for her tools.

The nagging thought at the back of his head officially bothering him, Lance sighed and switched his game to pause yet again. "Why're you so set on turning that little thing back on anyway, Pidge? You could fix up all sorts of tech that this castle has lying around if you wanted to. Probably wouldn't take all this extra effort either."

Having finally opened the robot up, Pidge frowned. "Yeah," she agreed. "I know. But… I don't know, I'm attached to Rover. Rover was a good friend. It only seems right to fix him up."

Lance quirked a brow at her. "Better friend than your living, breathing friends?"

"Almost," Pidge joked, a genuine smile curling on her lips. "Right now you all are just even with Rover. And when I'm done fixing him, he'll have a good chance of taking you all over."

"Well, that shouldn't be too hard for him, he's going to speak your language," Lance smirked back. "Literally – your little made up Altean-English language thing."

Surprised, Pidge blinked owlishly at Lance. "What? Were you actually paying attention to what I was saying earlier, Lance?"

"Maybe," he shrugged cockily. "But hey, what're friends for?"

He turned back to his game, waiting knowingly as Pidge fretted on the couch. When she finally stopped muttering to herself, Lance showed absolutely no surprise that she settled on the mat across from him.

"Can I join the next round?" she asked.

"Only if you're ready to be beat," he grinned, cracking his fingers' knuckles.

There was a confident sheen to Pidge's glasses as she readied her own screen. "We'll see about that."


End file.
